I recently did a painting of a ghost ship for a good friend of mine.

I used a lot of glaze layers in this; starting with the hard edged underpainting, then proceeding with white glazes, and blue.

I used ivory in my liquin to dull and smooth out the moon, and the ship itself. I wanted it to be ghostly and still, despite the rough and choppy water.

I aimed for ghostly more than violent. At first I was going to do sharks and severed hands and gore, but my friend wanted ghost ship, not disaster scene. So I toned it down a whole lot for this one.

The water was particularly fun. I shipped this out, and it was the first bigger canvas (16×20″) that I’ve shipped. I sent it insured, media mail…next time I might splurge on priority though…

I know she’s waiting for this to arrive, but I figured I would spoil the surprise by posting it right now. haha

I painted this during our big storm here; I had to keep stopping when it got dark outside, since painting by candlelight doesn’t work very well. Also my electricity was out.